Roster Talk '13 — Canada 3.0

After penciling him into their lineups, everyone just wants to see Dumba fail and they chose his skating as the thing to pick on. Not his defensive play or his lack of physicality in this tournament, nope we chose his skating because that's the easiest target.

Ok. Clearly everyone who watched the game today just imagined Dumba having huge issues skating backwards with any sort of decent speed. Or the fact that it took him about a minute to get up to his top speed skating backwards. Or the subpar pivots throughout the game or the mediocre lateral movement. Yep, all just a dream.

Oh, I see. Is this the first time youve seen Dumba? You and the others who make up "everyone"?

See its funny that the "backwards" comments come to the fore AFTER I pointed out an example of Dumba's speed IN TODAY'S GAME. Well of course, he was going forward in that example.

I know! Let's say he has trouble skating "backwards". Great idea! That will fool him.

Sorry guys, but Im a season ticket holder in the same division as Dumba. Id wager Ive seen him play much more than both of you combined and especially live.

You can quote stuff youve read if you like, but if it says Dumba is a poor skater, whoever wrote it doesnt have a clue. Parroting it here doesnt change that, all it does is propagate ignorance.

If you know anything about the WHL, you will know that Rhett Rachinski can pick them up and put them down. Im wagering neither of you have seen him play either, although there is an outside chance you may have seen him at the memorial cup last year.

Today he had a clear breakaway, if you were watching and paying attention, and Dumba caught him from behind at the last second interfering with his stick and muffling a quality scoring chance, possibly saving a goal against.

Of all the other dmen in camp, I think only Morgan Rielly could have caught Rachinski from behind. Would you say Morgan Rielly is a poor skater? Because, sorry to say, that is pretty much what you are saying when you call Dumba a poor skater.

People reading that who watch the WHL and know what they are talking about are laughing at those statements right now. Im not kidding.

It's good to know that when he gets beaten wide because HE CAN'T SKATE BACKWARDS, he is fast enough SKATING FORWARD to catch his opponent, provided he has half a rink to chase him down.

It's good to know that when he gets beaten wide because HE CAN'T SKATE BACKWARDS, he is fast enough SKATING FORWARD to catch his opponent, provided he has half a rink to chase him down.

If you dont like Dumba's game or how he has played, I have no problem with that. Tbh, its hard to follow what is going on, on a 4" screen on a laptop, with red jerseys and black numbers that nobody can see, but please, make some sense in what you are criticizing him for. Because his skating is his best attribute. Its what he is best at. And he is pretty damn good at it. Better than most of the dmen trying out for the team in fact.

So if he cant skate, then oh boy are we in a lot of trouble against the Russians.

If you dont like Dumba's game or how he has played, I have no problem with that. Tbh, its hard to follow what is going on, on a 4" screen on a laptop, with red jerseys and black numbers that nobody can see, but please, make some sense in what you are criticizing him for. Because his skating is his best attribute. Its what he is best at. And he is pretty damn good at it. Better than most of the dmen trying out for the team in fact.

So if he cant skate, then oh boy are we in a lot of trouble against the Russians.

Maybe you should watch the game next time instead of arguing with people that actually did. It's not as if it's just two of us that thought he was slow. There were posts constantly, both on the fasthockey chat and on here about his slowness. Both today and yesterday.

If you dont like Dumba's game or how he has played, I have no problem with that. Tbh, its hard to follow what is going on, on a 4" screen on a laptop, with red jerseys and black numbers that nobody can see, but please, make some sense in what you are criticizing him for. Because his skating is his best attribute. Its what he is best at. And he is pretty damn good at it. Better than most of the dmen trying out for the team in fact.

So if he cant skate, then oh boy are we in a lot of trouble against the Russians.

You are aware that skating involves more than just flat out speed. It includes pivoting and lateral movement, in which he was exposed badly for two straight games.

And Dumba's made himself easy to spot out there, even on your 4" monitor. He's the one making mistakes.

Did you watch the games the past two days? What excuse do you have for him repeatedly being beaten wide?

Hard to say without specific context. Maybe the forward got the jump on him? Could be the forward was a really good skater himself?

It really doesnt matter much. Ive seen Morgan Rielly get beat wide. Paul Coffey lots of times. Are those guys bad skaters? Can they not skate backwards?

Sometimes good dmen get beat. Dumba isnt really elite at the defensive side of things anyway. Ive seen Reinhart get beat wide lots of times. Should we cut him too? Where are the pages of comments about his inability to skate backwards?

Im telling you that people who have watched Dumba multiple times over the last 2 and a half years know that skating is one of his strengths, not a weakness. They will and are laughing at this. Not even kidding.

Maybe you should watch the game next time instead of arguing with people that actually did. It's not as if it's just two of us that thought he was slow. There were posts constantly, both on the fasthockey chat and on here about his slowness. Both today and yesterday.

Um, I gave you an example of Dumba catching a really fast skater from behind IN THE GAME TODAY? Hello?!? Are you paying attention?

Quote:

You're quite dense, aren't you? Posts from other members. Those aren't mine. I could quote another 10-15 easily. And that's not even mentioning the kind of crap he got for his skating on the fasthockey chat.

Fasthockey chat you say? Well, that changes everything doesnt it? Why didnt you say so in the first place? I mean, as a season ticket holder who goes to live games all the time, I thought I may bring something to bear, have some insight to add to the subject of poor club footed Matt Dumba, but I had no idea I would be challenged by posts from the experts at fasthockey chat.

I give. You win. Please, dont bring up quotes from tumblr or facebook. I dont think I can take the shame!

I think Dumba has amazing forward speed but relatively his lateral and reverse mobility is not as fast.

Relative to most CHL players, he's very fast in all 4 ways.
Relative to his own forward speed, he's a tad slow laterally/reverse.
Relative to some of his blue line competition, he isn't as quick (as some) in reverse/lateral.

Hard to say without specific context. Maybe the forward got the jump on him? Could be the forward was a really good skater himself?

It really doesnt matter much. Ive seen Morgan Rielly get beat wide. Paul Coffey lots of times. Are those guys bad skaters? Can they not skate backwards?

Sometimes good dmen get beat. Dumba isnt really elite at the defensive side of things anyway. Ive seen Reinhart get beat wide lots of times. Should we cut him too? Where are the pages of comments about his inability to skate backwards?

Im telling you that people who have watched Dumba multiple times over the last 2 and a half years know that skating is one of his strengths, not a weakness. They will and are laughing at this. Not even kidding.

C'mon now...how could any forward get the jump on Dumba? You've already proven he is one of the top skaters on all of team Canada because he chased a guy down. No one is going to believe this excuse now. You've lawyered yourself.

Or trashing Matt Dumba because Canuck fans want Frank Corrado to make the team. I'm willing to bet that if Corrado wasn't involved a lot of these posts about Dumba wouldn't be here,

To be fair, I would rather HC had kept Pouliot over Dumba for the first round of cuts - that doesn't improve Corrado's chances. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see Corrado make it, but I want Canada to win first and foremost, and I don't think Dumba's play thus far has warranted him making it past the first cuts.

I think Drouin has done enough to get the 13th forward and MacKinnon has shown he should be in the top 6. That probably means Shinkaruk is the odd man out. I think 12 forwards are set with RNH, Scheifele, Huberdeau, Strome, MacKinnon, Ritchie, Jenner, Hudon, Rattie, Danault, MacNeill, and Drouin. They probably will want one more big bodied physical player. I'm guessing Camara, so my forward cuts are Lipon, Wilson, Cattenacci and Shinkaruk.

Top 4 are a given on D and Griffin and Frank should get the last two regular spots. Spott will take Murphy, so the cuts are Wootherspoon, Sproul and Dumba. Dumba is only still here based on his pedigree.

I'm not going to guess forward lines anymore because I have no idea what pairings or positions the coach will want to place these guys. I think MacKinnon would do better on left wing than right, but that's just my opinion. If Spott wants to keep Strome with his line mate Ritchie, that stretches the top 6 to a more balanced top 9. So many of these players can play up and down from first to third line, that anything could happen.